Dragon Ball Xenoverse

Dragonball Xenoverse (abreged DBZXV) is a game for Playstation 3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC Steam developped by Dimps (The team which has developped the famous Budokai 3 DBZ game).

Below are some promotional pictures which were published in the V-Jump magazine :

Dragon Ball Xenoverse : All the characters

Without the DLCs characters and the bonus characters, Dragon Ball Xenoverse has 41 playable characters (without counting the transformations). Some characters from Dragon Ball GT and Dragonball movies are included into the game.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse's Roster :

- Goku base form, Kaioken Goku, Goku Super Saiyan, Goku SSJ2, Goku SSJ3, Goku SSJ God and Goku SSJ4.

- Vegeta (Scouter), Vegeta Oozaru (Great Ape), Vegeta Super Saiyan, Dark Vegeta.

- Bardock base form and Bardock Super Saiyan.

- Raditz.

- Nappa, Nappa Oozaru.

- Kid Gohan Petit, Little Kid Gohan with a saiyan tail.

- Teen Gohan Super Saiyan 1 and SSJ2.

- Adult Gohan base form, SSJ1, Ultimate Gohan, Dark Ultimate Gohan, Great Saiyaman.

- Future Trunks, Future Trunks SSJ, Dark Future Trunks Super Saiyan.

- Kid Trunks, kid Trunks Super Saiyan.

- Songoten, Songoten Super Saiyan.

- Gotenks base form, Gotenks SSJ1, Gotenks SSJ3, Dark Gotenks SSJ3.

- Vegeto base form and Super Vegeto.

- Gogeta SSJ4.

- Krillin.

- Yamcha.

- Mr Satan.

- Videl, Great Saiyagirl.

- Tienshinhan.

- Piccolo, Dark Piccolo.

- Freeza's soldier.

- Saibaiman.

- Appule, Raspberry.

- Guldo.

- Recoome.

- Burter.

- Jeece.

- Ginyu.

- freeza Form 1, Final form Freeza, Freezer 100%, Dark Freezer 100%.

- Android 17 (C-17).

- Android 18 (C-18).

- Perfect Cell, Super Perfect Cell, Dark Cell.

- Cell Jr.

- Super Android 17.

- Majin Buu.

- Kid Buu, Dark Kid Bu.

- Super Buu.

- Beerus (or Bills), The God of the Destruction.

- Whis.

- Omega Shenron.

- Broly (In his Super Legendary form).

The bonus characters for thoses who have pre-ordered Dragon Ball Xenoverse :

- Vegeta GT SSJ4.

- Jaco, the Galactic patroller (It's the bonus for the Japanese version).

The non-playable characters in Dragonball Xenoverse

- Towa (She is included in the DLC Pack 2).

- Mira (He is included in the DLC Pack 2).

- Demigra, Demigra transformed into a monster.

- Baby Vegeta Oozaru (Non playable character which is in the base game but he is only seen as an opponent in the DLC Pack 1).

- The Supreme Kai of the time (The Kaioshin girl who controls the time).

- Tokitoki (A character who looks like an old bird with a beard).

The DLCS Packs for Dragonball Xenoverse

The Dragon Ball Xenoverse DLC Pack 1 contains :

- 3 additional characters who are Goku GT, Goku GT super Saiyan and Goku GT Super Saiyan 3 (One of the movesets from Goku GT uses a magic stick which can growth to hit farther), Pan, Trunks GT, Trunks GT Super Saiyan.

- 1 additional playable stage : Planet Tuffles.

- 9 additional Z souls.

- 2 new masters : Tienshinhan and Yamcha who can make the player learn up to :

- 15 new animations.

- 4 New Time Patrollers missions.

- 3 Additional quests.

The Dragon Ball Xenoverse DLC Pack 2 contains :

DLC Pack 2 Promotional picture (release date : End of March 2015).

- 4 exclusive playable characters and they are Nuova Shenron, Eis Shenron, Mira and Towa.

- The costume sets from Mira, Towa, Super 17 and Gogeta.

- Pan as a master.

- New animations for your avatars.

- 6 New Z-Souls.

- The 3 main quests which ends the GT Saga in the Dragonball Xenoverse's Story Mode.

- 2 parallel quests.

The Dragonball Xenoverse DLC Pack 3 contains :

- 2 exclusive playables characters and they are : Golden Freeza, Goku and Vegeta from Resurrection F and Jaco.

- 2 New Masters and amongs them Jaco.

- 13 New animations.

- 1 New costume and it is Gohan's new Green outfit seen in the Revival of F Movie.

- 2 New objects and amongs them Tagoma's scouter.

- 3 New Z-Souls.

The avatars : Dragon Ball Xenoverse contains a characters editor

In DBXV, the player can create his own unique character with the ingame characters editor.

Here is for example a character created with the editor featured in the game Dragon Ball Xenoverse :

And here are others characters created with the ingame editor :

The characters types :

There are 8 types of characters availables in DBZ Xenoverse :

- Saiyan Male
- Saiyan Female
- Humain Male
- Humain Female
- Namekien
- Frost Demon (Freeza race)
- Majin Male
- Majin Female

As for the number of characters who can be created during a party, the player can create 8 of them.
Also, with the Dragon Balls, the player can change completly how his character looks like without having to begin a new party.

Also, it's possible to give alternate outfits to the created characters and to give different technics and objects (like armors, scouters, kamehameha, masenko, ...) to each one of theses outfits.

DBZ Xenoverse arenas/stages

DBZXV has 21 maps playables as well as several arenas which can be played only during the main quests and the side quests.

List of the 21 playable stages in Dragon Ball Xenoverse :

- Kaioshin's World.

- The Namek Planet (Normal and fusion version).

- Cell's Ring.

- The Time Chamber.

- Kami's Lookout.

- Plains.

- Big hole Stage (Cell Ring arena after it has been destroyed).

- Rocky mountains.

- Tournament Ring.

- Space near Planet Vegeta.

- Space near the Earth.

- Desert.

- Town 1.

- Town 2.

- Town 3.

- Rocky spikes.

- Cavern (The one in which Goku and Beerus fight in the anime Battle of Gods).

- Mont Paozu.

Also during the quests, jump gates dispatched into theses 21 selectable arenas allow the players to travel from one arena to the other. For example, if a fight takes place in the Kami's Lookout map, it's possible for the players to use the jump gate found in this level to travel to the Plains map.

Now, when it comes to the arenas, sadly the interactions between the characters and the environnement aren't fully implemented (like if the game was rushed to be published in time). And by this, I mean : Only some objects within the maps can be destroyed (like houses or a very small number of landscape objects) and when a character is projected on the gound, a hole forms ... only to disappear one second later. Example of destructible objects : The Room in the Time Chamber, one of the mountain spike in the Rocky spikes level or some houses in the Namek planet level.

Now there still some good things with the level design of theses maps : For example in the Time Chamber, the player begins the fight in the Room and in the Mount Paozu Stage, it's possible to hide behind the waterfall and there are fishs in the lake.

Finally, the maps are quite varied and the landscape's details are visible from very far, but when it comes to the area where the player(s) can move freely, it's too quite small, especially for team battles. Still the good thing is that the invisibles walls are very discreet.

Arenas playable solely during the story mod and secondary quests in DBZ Xenoverse :

- Clock Stage (This is the map where Demigra is fought).

- Cristal Room (The Cristal Room stage is where the player finally defeat Demigra transformed into a Demon)

- Interior of Freeza's vessel.

Others arenas from Dragon Ball Xenoverse :

There are been ingame pictures of at least another map which was revealed. This map is available in the DLC Pack 1, the GT quests against Baby Vegeta Oozaru take place there.

- Tsufuru planet (Where Goku fights Baby Vegeta in Dragon Ball GT).

Dragon Ball Xenoverse gameplay :

The gameplay of Dragon Ball Xenoverse is a mix of some sorts between Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3, Budokai 3, Zenkai Battle Royale, Battle of Z and some zest of Mortal Kombat 9 (for the facial deformations) with a Role-playing game aspect à la Dragon Ball Online.

1) In DBXV, the fighting system is enterely in 3D and offers a wide varieties of movements on the ground, on the air and underwater à la Tenkaichi 3. Also, when on the ground, the characters visually run (they don't move like in Tenkaichi 3) and underwater they visually swim.

2) The game is heavily focused on the Team battles introduced by Dragon Ball Z Sagas, Dragon Ball Zenkai Battle Royale and Dragon Ball Z Battle of Z like this gameplay video shows it but 1 on 1 battles can also be fought. The lock system and the noise sound a lots like the one used in the arcade game Dragon Ball Zenkai Battle Royale. This system consists of a cursor which indicates where are located the opponents and allow to lock on the one you want to fight (usefull when fighting opponents like Saibaimen.

2) When it comes to melee attacks, the combos and others combined attacks necessitate 2 buttons and the directional arrow. As for the throwing techincs, characters like the namekians and Majins use their extendable arms.

3) Teleporating behind the opponents back and pursuing them is also widely used in the Dragon Ball Xenoverse's gameplay.

4) When a character is hit by a powerful melee attack, the action is slowed down and a close up on the action show his face deformed by the impact. (Typical from the last Mortal Kombat games).

5) Transformations are also back since Dragon Ball Z Battle of Z but only for the Saiyan characters and like in the Budokai 3 game, they go back to their base form when they are tired or defeated. For others characters like Freeza for example, they can only transform during the story mod and it's scripted. If you choose to play with Freeza in his first form, he will be unable to transform. Still, there is one non-saiyan character who can change his appearance in Dragon Ball Xenoverse and it's Captain Ginyu with his Bodies Switch technic where he actually can exchange his body with any opponents he faces (Including Broly, Bardock, ... everybody).

6) Melee clashes are also present in DBZ Xenoverse but not the energetic clashes. When two energy beams met, they are canceled like in the game Dragon Ball Z Infinite World (Also developped by Dimps).

7) If you play with a friend on the same console, the screen isn't splitted but because of this and to avoid cameras problems, the only arena available when two players play on the same console is the tournament arena.

8) The Dragon Ball Xenoverse game is also focused on Role-play and characters customization : Like in Budokai 3, the player has to equip the characters with different attacks so they can use them. But in Xenoverse, this goes as far as to allow Ki charging only if the Ki charging capsule is put in the character's inventory, this allowing to enable or disable this move (if you want to create an android-like character or if you play as an human characters (most human in DBZ can't charge ki). Now for the main characters, it's different than how it was in Budokai 3, in Xenoverse, official characters are availables in different costumes and each one of theses outfits are equipped with capsules that can't be removed : For example if you choose to fight as Goku in the outfit he used to fight Raditz, he won't be able to transform or to use the Kaioken and the Genkidama. Now for the number of super moves availables, there are around 200 of them in the game and they can be bought at the Tokitoki city which is used a a hub and a gathering point between missions.

8) If a player equips one of the costume of his character with a scouter, in this outfit, the character will be able to enable the scouter mode during the fights : When the scouter mode is enabled, the screen will become purple or green and if you lock on another character with the cursor, his infos will be displayed : How much life points he has, what technics he uses, ... This can be very useful for strategic play in team battles (Ex : Team attacks on the strongest character in the other team or team attack on opponents who have little life points left, ...).

9) Now when it comes to the fights themselves, the gameplay is fast, there are more than one combos per characters (it's not like in Battle of Z) but overall it is less technical than Budokai 3 and Tenkaichi 3 (Count around 6 or 7 combos possibles per characters) and there are some problems with the cameras, especially during team battles and on some missions like the one which takes place in Freeza's vessel.
As for the team battles where one or several characters controlled by the CPU are in the player's team, the IA makes theses characters to be more like a burden on the player's shoulders than anything else, especially during fights when their death makes the player loose the party.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse's story mode

In Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Trunks asks Shenron to summon a strong fighter to end the evil actions of hostile forces who are changing the Dragon Ball history in paralleles universes at different eras. To become powerful enough to restablish the Dragon Ball History and eliminate the threat, the player will have to choose a trainer who can be : Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta, .... which will determinates what skills and moves he will learn.
The game begins with Raditz's arrival on Earth and ends at the Buu Saga, with the exception of a secret mission : Bardock's war against Freeza's army and some Dragon Ball GT events which should be extended with the DLC packs.
As for inspirations, Dragon Ball Xenoverse's story mode seems to be a mix between Dragon Ball Z Shin Budokai 2's story mode and Dragon Ball Online's story mode. Towa and Mira, two main enemies from DBO are returning in this Dragon Ball Xenoverse game and try to accumulate a lots of ki to fulfill their objective. Facing them, are Future Trunks, the Kaioshin of the time, a strange bird named Tokitoki ... and of course the avatar created by the player.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse's good points

- The cutscenes are very well done (excepted the intro) and features scenes which had never been ported on video games like the event in which Goku shows his Super Saiyan transformation to Majin Buu. Others excellent scenes are (amongs others) : The scene where Ginyu is changed into a frog, where Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan against Freeza, ...

- The arenas availables in the game are varied and visually beautiful.

- The characters becomes battles damaged after having suffered damages. Nothing new since Dragonball Z Tenkaichi 3 but this features wasn't present in the famous Budokai serie developped by Dimps.

- Draw games and Double KOs are included in Dragon Ball Xenoverse.

- The characters' facial expressions are very well done.

- The possibility to travel from one arena to the other via jump gates to finish the fight there is an interesting concept.

- The possibility for the player to create his own character and give him alternate outfits which all can be equipped with differents objects and moves, thoses making his outfit uniques.

- Secondary quests can be played online alongside others players.

- The story mode lasts around 15 hours and if ones want to finish the game at 100% and unlock everything, you can count around 100 hours which is quite big for a Dragon Ball game.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse's negative aspects

No game is perfect and so is Dragon Ball Xenoverse. Here is the list of negative aspects which can be found in the game :

- If you play against a friend on the same console, the fight can only take place in the tournament arena, you can't change the IA's difficulty or the time limit and since the characters have little life points, the matches don't last long.

- Also, the ring out isn't implemented into the tournament stage which means it's impossible to win by Ring Out (When down outside the rings, the characters just lie down a little above the ground).

- No beam struggles : If you and an opponent throw an energy beam at the same time, they will be canceled.

- The arenas are beautiful but the place where you can move freely is too small for a game centered on team battles. Also the interactions between them and the players / NPCs is limited : Only a small portion of the maps can be destroyed and for the rest the destruction effects last a very short time. For example when a character is projected into the ground, a hole will appears around him ... only to be closed one second later. Also, there is no planet destructions like in Budokai 3 or Tenkaichi 3.

- The impact of the hits during melee attacks seems a little too "light", like if the hits weren't powerful (It's a big flaw which exists in DBZ games since Raging Blast 2).

- In team battles, it's sometimes difficult enough to lock correctly on the opponent we want.

- It's not possible to choose 1VS3 or 2VS3 fights in dual mode. The only team battles possibles are 2VS2 or 3VS3.

- Also, it's impossible to make Goku and Vegeta and Trunks and Goten use the fusions during the matches. If it's understandable when several players are in the same team (who would take the control of the fused character ?), it's sad that we can't use the fusion when we fight the IA or an enemy team controlled by another player.

- If a Saiyan character created with the ingame editor transforms into a super saiyan, his hairs form won't change, only their color and their color of his eyes will (So if a player creates a saiyan avatar and gives him Trunks hairs, the result will be quite strange ...).

- When a Saiyan character transforms, his HUD icon (The icon located near his lifebar) won't change so when he will be transformed into a super saiyan, the HUD icon will still be his base form icon.
It's strange because even in the Budokai serie where the transformations are temporary the HUD icon change to the transformed forms, but in Xenoverse not.

- If you choose to play Team battles against the computer, the others characters from your team controlled by the CPU will often be a burden because of the IA and sometimes can make you loose, if one of the condition to win the fight is that theses allied characters survive.

- Dragon Ball Xenoverse's Roster is quite small and it misses a lots of main characters from Dragon Ball Z like for example : Freezer 2nd and 3rd forms, Imperfect Cell and Semi-Perfect Cell, Zarbon, Dodoria, Android 19, Dr Gero, Android 16, Majin Vegeta, Super Buu Gohan absorbed, Super Buu Gotenks absorbed ou Gogeta SSJ1 (While Gogeta SSJ4 is in the game ...).

- Not a single time the character created by the player talk with NPCs characters during the story mode.

- The characters Towa, Mira and Demigra aren't playables while they are in the game and have all the animations necessary to be playable since during the story mode the player has to fight them.

- No training mode is available.

- The gameplay is far less technical than games like Budokai 3 or Tenkaichi 3 with 6-7 combos maximum per characters and the buttons to do them is the same, no matters the character you choose to play with.

- Dragon Ball Xenoverse is a game sold in parts : For example if Goku GT SSJ4 is in the game, his others forms (Goku GT base, SSJ1 and SSJ3) will only be available for thoses who buy the DLC Pack 1. If this continue like this, in the next games, the customers may have to pay just to make his character transform into a Super Saiyan. Same for Vegeta SSJ4, he is a pre-order bonus while Gogeta SSJ4 is in the game ... Here we aren't talking about classic DLCs but about contents removed from the game to be sold as DLCs.

In conclusion :

Dragonball Xenoverse is a decent game but which seems to have been published before it was totally finished : No HUD icons for transformed forms, destructions effects not fully implemented, Super Saiyans hairs for created characters don't change forms, the ring out hasn't been implemented into the tournament stage, ... As for the fighting mechanics, it looks like a Battle of Z 2.0 (Each character has 6 or 7 combos and most of them are done the same way, no matters the character you choose. Last but not least the commercial practice which consists to sell the game in parts makes the game less interesting to buy because it makes it a little too pricy for what it is : A good but imperfect game. Also the choice to make the PC version available on Steam only makes the game uninteresting for solo players (because with steam you have to connect to internet regularly and if there is an update and you can't connect because you are in hollyday for example, then you can't play).
So, the best Dragon Ball Z games are still Tenkaichi 3 and Budokai 3 for their gameplay and Tenkaichi 2 and Budokai 1 for their story mode. BT3 and B3 are still the kings of DBZ games.

So, Buy or not buy ? It depends :

- If what interest you is to play online matches, buy the Dragon Ball Xenoverse game because when it comes to online play, it is quite fun.

- But for solo players and thoses who plan to play with a friend on the same console, not sure the game is worth it, excepted perhaps for playing with mods : List of mods for Dragon Ball Xenoverse.

All in all, Dragon Ball Xenoverse clearly targets online players and when it comes to online play, it is quite a good game.